Lovereading Latest: Biography / Autobiography

The Favored Daughter : One Woman's Fight to Lead Afghanistan into the Future - Fawzia Koofi, Nadene Gourhi

The Favored Daughter : One Woman's Fight to Lead Afghanistan into the Future
Fawzia Koofi, Nadene Gourhi

Format: Hardback - Released: 02/02/2012
Lovereading Price: £12.74 - Saving £4.25 (25%)

February 2012 Non-Fiction Book of the Month. This is an extraordinarily moving autobiography of the first lady of Afghani politics. Left to die in the sun as a the unwanted 19th daughter of an influential village leader Fawzia Koofi, through an enormous amount of perseverance good luck and capitalising on her family’s political background, rose to become an advocate for women’s rights and stand against the corruption and infighting that bedevils Afghanistan.Like for Like ReadingDear Zari: Hidden Stories from the Women of Afghanistan, Zharghuna KargarThe Sewing Circles of Herat: My Afghan Years, Christina Lamb

The Six Wives of Henry VIII - Antonia Fraser

The Six Wives of Henry VIII
Antonia Fraser

Format: Paperback - Released: 20/02/2012
Lovereading Price: £7.49 - Saving £2.50 (25%)

A Special Edition of The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser to celebrate Orion's 20th anniversary. The six wives of Henry VIII - Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Catherine Parr - have become defined in a popular sense not so much by their lives as by the way these lives ended. But, as Antonia Fraser conclusively proves, they were rich and feisty characters. They may have been victims of Henry's obsession with a male heir, but they were not willing victims. On the contrary, they displayed considerable strength and intelligence at a time when their sex supposedly possessed little of either.

Stalin : The Court of the Red Tsar - Simon Sebag Montefiore

Stalin : The Court of the Red Tsar
Simon Sebag Montefiore

Format: Paperback - Released: 20/02/2012
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A Special Edition of Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore to celebrate Orion's 20th anniversary. The remarkable untold story of the men and women who sustained Stalin in power in the Soviet Union for nearly 30 years - a SUNDAY TIMES bestseller.

Life : Keith Richards - Keith Richards

Life : Keith Richards
Keith Richards

Format: Paperback - Released: 20/02/2012
Lovereading Price: £6.74 - Saving £2.25 (25%)

A Special Edition of Life by Keith Richards to celebrate Orion's 20th anniversary. Shortlisted for the Galaxy Biography of the Year Award 2011. Not one just for Rolling Stones fans, not just one for lovers of rock music, this is a real part of modern history, chronicling a life spent in music and giving a real sense of how life can be if you shed the safe life options and go for the fast lane. And the drugs have left memory gaps but these are filled in with the commentaries of friends and family and overall Richards has some tremendous stories to tell, there are a good set of illustrations too making for a really compulsive read into the life of this born survivor. Like for Like ReadingCash: The Autobiography, Johnny Cash and Patrick CarrWhite Line Fever: Lemmy – The Autobiography, Lemmy Kilmister

A Child Called It - Dave Pelzer

A Child Called It
Dave Pelzer

Format: Paperback - Released: 20/02/2012
Lovereading Price: £5.24 - Saving £1.75 (25%)

A Special Edition of A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer to celebrate Orion's 20th anniversary. The first in Dave Pelzer’s trilogy of books about his childhood is shocking and upsetting. How can a mother treat one of children so brutally while continuing a normal relationship with her husband and other children, and how can the family stand by and let her do it? Attributed with being the book that launched the misery memoir genre this is a disturbing tale, of a childhood ruined, by a mother who was surely mentally disturbed.

Himalaya - Michael Palin

Himalaya
Michael Palin

Format: Paperback - Released: 20/02/2012
Lovereading Price: £6.74 - Saving £2.25 (25%)

A Special Edition of Himalaya by Michael Palin to celebrate Orion's 20th anniversary. Winner of TV & Film Book of the Year at the British Book Awards 2005 The beautiful, glossy, illustrated hardback that accompanied the television series brought down to a text-led portable-sized paperback with 64 of the colour photographs grouped together. This is for those of you who actually want to read about the region and Palin’s extraordinary adventures during six months of hard travelling.

The Diamond Queen : Elizabeth II and Her People - Andrew Marr

The Diamond Queen : Elizabeth II and Her People
Andrew Marr

Format: Hardback - Released: 27/10/2011
Lovereading Price: £18.75 - Saving £6.25 (25%)

With the flair for narrative and the meticulous research that readers have come to expect, Andrew Marr turns his attention to the monarch and to the monarchy, chronicling the Queen's pivotal role at the centre of the state, which is largely hidden from the public gaze, and making a strong case for the institution itself. A TV series based on this book begins on BBC1 on Monday 6th February 2012.

Keeping Up with the Germans A History of Anglo-German Encounters - Philip Oltermann

Keeping Up with the Germans A History of Anglo-German Encounters
Philip Oltermann

Format: Paperback - Released: 02/02/2012
Lovereading Price: £9.74 - Saving £3.25 (25%)

In 1996, in the middle of watching an ill-tempered football match between England and Germany, Philip Oltermann's parents tell him that they are going to leave their home city Hamburg behind and move to London. A number of worrying questions arise. How would English schoolboys take to a lanky 16-year-old German? How did they think and do things differently? What was the secret of the famed British humour? And were there values that English and German people shared? In search of answers, Oltermann interweaves memoir and history, taking ten key Anglo-German encounters from the last 200 years as his starting point. What emerges is nothing less than an alternative national story for the two countries: not one marked by military conflict and diplomatic hostility, but one shaped by dialogue, interaction and genuine fondness.

Saved by Cake - Marian Keyes

Saved by Cake
Marian Keyes

Format: Hardback - Released: 16/02/2012
Lovereading Price: £12.74 - Saving £4.25 (25%)

Learn to bake with Britain's favourite women's fiction author, Marian Keyes. Saved by Cake gives an extremely honest account of Marian Keyes' recent battle with depression, and how baking has helped her. A complete novice in the kitchen, Marian decided to bake a cake for a friend and that was it - she realized that baking was what she needed to do in order to get her through each day. And so she baked, and she wrote her recipes down, and little by little the depression has started to lift, along with her sponges... Never patronizing, always honest and witty, accessible and full of fun, the bakes and cakes that Marian serves up in this cookbook will put a smile on your face and make you happy. From her Consistently Reliable Cupcakes and Very Chocolately Macaroons, to the ease of her Fridge-set Honeycomb Cheesecake, you will want to have a go at making all of Marian's recipes. The shoe and handbag biscuits particularly. Very covetable. Very Marian.

Tutankhamen's Curse The Developing History of an Egyptian King - Joyce Tyldesley

Tutankhamen's Curse The Developing History of an Egyptian King
Joyce Tyldesley

Format: Hardback - Released: 09/02/2012
Lovereading Price: £14.24 - Saving £4.75 (25%)

This is the true history and mythology of Tutankhamen. Ninety years ago, Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamen's mummy lying, surrounded by grave goods, in a virtually intact tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Egyptology would never be the same again. Tutankhamen's Curse approaches the story of the lost king, and his development into a cultural icon, with fresh eyes. Stripping away the layers of modern myths that threaten to obscure the king, it uses the evidence from his tomb to reconstruct a family and a history for Tutankhamen. Tutankhamen's Curse is designed to appeal to the widest of readerships, from general reader and lovers of history to students of Egyptology and archaeology.

Dig WWII BBCTV Tie-in to the Series Presented by Dan Snow - Jean Hood

Dig WWII BBCTV Tie-in to the Series Presented by Dan Snow
Jean Hood

Format: Hardback - Released: 27/02/2012
Lovereading Price: £18.75 - Saving £6.25 (25%)

Military archaeology is amongst the newest academic disciplines and is also one of the fastest growing. The BBC TV series Dig WWII will be using this discipline to examine some of the most compelling stories of the Battle of the Atlantic, the Battle of Britain and the Battle for Europe to provide fresh insights and understanding into our dramatic fight for survival. There will be perilous dives onto a tank graveyard and a sunken U-boat; the recovery of a crashed Spitfire from a Northern Irish bog; and an exploration of the tunnels and bunkers on a D-Day beach. Each story has personal testimony from veterans who were there. The series is made by the same team who made Dig 1940 for BBC1, which achieved nearly 5 million viewers for its opening episode. Author Jean Hood looks into all these stories, revealing the scientific breakthroughs, such as DNA profiling that has allowed families to identify loved ones, as well as the dangers inherent in diving to 130 metres and digging in a peat bog, while providing broader discussion on the themes in the programmes within a wider framework of the war in Europe.

India A Portrait - Patrick French

India A Portrait
Patrick French

Format: Paperback - Released: 26/01/2012
Lovereading Price: £8.24 - Saving £2.75 (25%)

One of this century's greatest surprises has been the economic and social revolution in India. What is the real nature of this rapid change, and where are its roots? India takes the reader on an extraordinary journey, geographically from the remote Buddhist north to the tropical far south and socially from the new multi-millionaires to the many Indians still crushed by caste and poverty.

Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World - Simon Callow

Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World
Simon Callow

Format: Hardback - Released: 02/02/2012
Lovereading Price: £12.74 - Saving £4.25 (25%)

From his early years as a child entertainer in Portsmouth to his reluctant retirement from 'these garish lights' just before his death, Dickens was obsessed with the stage. Not only was he a dazzling mimic who wrote, acted in and stage-managed plays, all with fanatical perfectionism; as a writer he was a compulsive performer, whose very imagination was theatrical, both in terms of plot devices and construction of character. Like many actors, Dickens felt the need to be completed by contact with his audience. He was the original 'celebrity' author, who attracted thousands of adoring fans to his readings in Britain and across the Atlantic, in which he gave voice to his unforgettable cast of characters. In Charles Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World, Callow brings his own unique insight to a life driven by performance and showmanship. He reveals an exuberant and irrepressible talent, whose 'inimitable' wit and personality crackle off the page.